Rebecca was bored. There might have been dozens of places to try out or shops to visit, but instead she sat at the bar in Dive acting like the world outside offered no more excitement than the equivalent of a Psi Phi rush party or watching a Brady Bunch marathon on TV. Or worse - the movie sequel. She looked around the bar with a disinterested expression on her face as she absent-mindedly sipped her Screwdriver through her straw. The legal drinking age in Atlantis was only eighteen, and you could bet Ryan Gosling’s hot ass that she was totally taking advantage of that rule. Celebrating her twenty-first birthday later in the month might turn out to be anticlimactic, but that wasn’t going to stop her now.
Normally, she probably would have ended up at a place like the Lightning Brew or one of the clubs in town, but since she barely knew anyone here yet and wasn’t terribly skilled at making friends, especially with other girls, Rebecca had popped by Dive and sat at the bar to keep Cappie company while he worked. Or so that’s what she told herself. Her roommates were nice, cheerfully nice, and she knew she needed to put herself out there and get to know people, but that day was not today. He was going to be getting off the clock soon anyway, so it wasn’t like she was going to be sitting here for too long.
Her eyes scanned the room, and about as soon as Cappie walked back over from where he was helping a customer, Rebecca’s eyes caught sight of a tall, dark, and deliciously handsome man walk inside and head back towards one of the pool tables. Her eyes widened, and she looked him up and down appreciatively. He looked like he would make a very, very nice friend, didn’t he?
As luck would have it, she saw the man wave over to Cappie when he passed by who then returned the gesture. Rebecca spun her chair back around so that she was facing Cappie. “Who is that?” She asked him with a wicked smile forming on her lips.
Cappie had been shooting little glances at Rebecca while he’d been going about his work. He was actually kind of worried about her. Without her sorority sisters around her, she wasn’t doing so well with the whole socializing thing, and he knew from experience that fitting in to Atlantis was a lot about making friends. What they needed was a good party or something, where she could meet people and let her hair down. His birthday couldn’t have come up at a better time. In the meantime, though, he felt like it was his duty to keep her occupied so that she didn’t regret staying.
He finished serving the last customer at the bar before picking up his own drink - lime cordial and soda, for a change - and heading back down to where Rebecca was sitting, waving to Roman across the room as he headed for the pool tables.
When Rebecca turned around to face him, he couldn’t help but smile, amused at the predatory look on her face. Although the telepathy that the lightning strike had given him had worn off, to the point where the thoughts of people around him were just an annoying buzz, he didn’t need special powers to understand what the look on Rebecca’s face meant.
“That is Roman,” he told her, chuckling as he put his drink down on the bar and cupped it with his hands, lightly tapping his rings against the glass. If anyone was a match for Rebecca, small and feisty as she was, it was Roman, with his millennia’s worth of experience at dealing with girls just like her.
“He’s… interesting. Very good at pool,” Cappie said with a grin. “He’s friends with Georgina. You were talking to her before.”
There were so many inappropriate metaphors for pool that ran through her mind in a manner of seconds, and Rebecca’s smile only grew wider. Maybe she’d ask if he could teach her how to handle a pool stick before the night was over. She licked her lips as she watched him, but then turned back to face Cappie again, taking a sip of her drink.
“Hm?” She asked about this other friend of his. “Oh, right. Yes, I think I remember her.” Vaguely. There were so many people and new faces here that it was incredibly hard to tell them all apart or remember names and faces. With faces like this Roman’s, though, she could easily remember his. She wondered briefly how close he was with this other girl, not that it really mattered to her, but she’d be keeping her eyes open just in case.
Seeing Cappie’s drink in hand, she assumed his shift was over. Good. This stool was starting to become terribly uncomfortable. “So, what exactly is there to do around here besides hang out in bars?” She’d spent some of her time down at the base getting to know the other diplomats, but she was quickling learning that this was much different than life as a senator’s daughter or sorority president. Rebecca wasn’t running the show anymore, and it sucked getting used to that.
“Something that doesn’t include these weird ‘Atlantis moments’ I keep hearing about.” Thankfully, she hadn’t been struck by any of those yet - literally or figuratively.
There was plenty to do in Atlantis which didn’t involve bars or drinking, Cappie just didn’t spend much time doing it. At least, he hadn’t lately. Since returning from his MIA period, he’d been picking up more hours at the bar to make up for what he’d missed and when he wasn’t serving drinks he was usually out drinking them.
“I guess you could ride a pegasus,” he shrugged. That was something that a lot of the girls here seemed to coo over.
“Or there’s a spa,” he added, remembering his first date with Emilia when they had trespassed on its roof.
“A lot of people go out for Taco Tuesdays,” he told her, starting to get into the swing of it and beginning to think of ways that Rebecca might be able to meet people and start making friends here. It was the people who would convince her to stick around long term, not the spa or the pegasus riding.
“Or Georgina teaches tango at Trocution… although I guess that’s in a club,” he said, frowning to himself as he considered whether that counted as hanging out in a bar or not.
Rebecca sipped more at her drink as Cappie described some of the more interesting pieces of Atlantis aside from their present activity. It was an activity she had no doubt she’d enjoy often, but she didn’t have a house to worry over or classes to attend. She needed something else do to with her time since she wasn’t sure exactly what her position as one of the city’s diplomats entailed. She’d met everyone and had mostly started learning about past missions and ways the diplomats had been helpful. Not much had happened so far since she’d been here. She supposed she could sign up for a few classes in the fall if she found herself wanting to continue her education here.
The idea of a spa interested her although there was a little bit of a surprise that it was one of the first things Cappie mentioned. Dance lessons could be fun depending on what was offered, she thought.
“A pegasus might have some potential,” she said with a small shrug. “To go look at first,” she clarified quickly. Riding might take a visit or two before she dared go flying on a magical horse. Although, the idea did sort of go along with her Disney theme. First a princess roommate then flying horses. Maybe she could see if one of her cheerful roommates wanted to go.
“Have you thought about ever taking any classes?” She asked him curiously. “Not that we really need them here, I guess.”
A little, amused smile rose to Cappie’s lips as he imagined Rebecca trying to befriend a Pegasus. She was the sort of person who liked to be in control in every situation and he was enjoying picturing her uncertainty when that control was taken away from her by a magical, flying horse. Still, as far as he knew, the Pegasi were fairly friendly. At least, he hadn’t heard any horror stories yet; he’d mainly just seen girls squealing on the network about living out their childhood fantasies.
“Yeah, I go to the college here,” he told her, realising that he probably should have mentioned that sooner. The thing was, college in Atlantis wasn’t at all like being at CRU. His social life here was centred around his job at Dive and the friends he’d met there. College was just something he did sometimes to keep his brain from completely turning to mush. They taught some really interesting classes - not just the normal stuff - but even when he was really into a subject, Cappie generally only made it to about 50% of his classes. He’d mostly scraped acceptable grades so far but that was largely due to him already having a fairly wide knowledge base to draw from. Essentially, he’d been pulling grades out of his ass. Still, he knew he couldn’t go on like that forever. At some point, he’d have to make the decision of whether to carry on and put in some effort or call time on college in Atlantis and focus on being the best damn bartender he could be for the duration of his time here. The problem was, he couldn’t get Casey’s voice out of his head: ”Cappie, I love you, but you are so much more than just a bartender.”
“You could carry on with your major,” Cappie suggested. “With all the crazy that goes on around here, they could probably use some more trained psychologists.”
Rebecca made a mental note to check out the flying horses soon enough. Preferably, on a day less likely to have other visitors or riders so that if she ended up falling to the ground on her first ride out, hardly anyone would actually see her do it. She hadn’t been here long enough to warrant an embarrassing, viral video yet.
Hearing that Cappie had been continuing on with college surprised her, but after a moment, she supposed it made sense. There was a part of her that wanted to just forget it altogether until she ever decided to go home, but it might be nice to check into to see what might be offered. It wouldn’t hurt anything.
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “It would add an ounce of normality to being here.” She didn’t want to go home right away for a variety of reasons, and taking some courses would help keep her occupied whenever she wasn’t needed at the base. Tilting her heads towards him, she smiled a little. “So, you’re saying being here makes people crazy?” She teased. Mostly. Oh god, hopefully that would just amounted to teasing.
Cappie laughed. “I don’t know whether I’d say Atlantis makes people crazy,” he said, lifting a hand to ruffle his hair. “But if someone was already on the path to crazy, Atlantis would definitely give them a nudge in that direction.” It actually often amazing him how mentally resilient a lot of the people in Atlantis were. While a lot of the weird stuff was awkward and annoying at worst, some of the ordeals people had been through at the hands of COS were anything but light and fluffy. The fact that there were people here that he knew and socialized with who had been literally kidnapped and tortured still caught him off guard whenever he thought about it. It was amazing the psych wards weren’t overflowing.
Cappie glanced around the bar.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said, tipping away the last of his soda and stacking his glass in the rack ready for the glasswasher. “This place is dead; Abe can manage on his own until Sara gets in.”
He walked out from behind the bar but paused mid-way.
“Unless you wanted an impromptu pool lesson?” he added, nodding his head towards the back of the bar were he could hear the little, melodious clicking of Roman’s pool balls hitting into each other.
Aside from possibly taking some classes in the fall, she could always try to see if the medical department needed any extra hands in the therapist's offices. She didn’t know how often the offices were utilized, but it wouldn’t hurt. Plus, it might give her an insight onto some of the more… colorful characters here. Rebecca did always like to remain informed.
She finished off the remains of her drink, and glanced longingly over to where the tall, dark drink of water was over there playing pool. After Cappie’s question, she watched the man line up a shot and sink the ball perfectly into the targeted pocket. She sighed but then pulled herself out of the daze.
Shaking her head, Rebecca turned away and back towards Cappie. “Later. Let’s go out.” There was no ‘maybe’ in front of that later because as far as Rebecca was concerned, it would happen. If they ended up back at the bar, and Roman was still there? Well, that would be fate, wouldn’t it?